The Higher Law and Our True King

Every so often, there is a remarkable confluence of events that reminds us of God's will and His activity in our world. In just the past few days, we've seen another example of that, one that reminds us of the dire consequences if we continue to forget that God's law is the highest law and that Christ is our true King.

Last week, a federal District Court judge ruled that a Texas abortion law was unconstitutional. The bill prohibited "dismemberment abortion", which is defined in stomach-churning terms as:

dismember[ing] the living unborn child and extract[ing] the unborn child one piece at a time from the uterus through the use of clamps, grasping forceps, tongs, scissors, or a similar instrument that, through the convergence of two rigid levers, slices, crushes, or grasps, or performs any combination of those actions on, a piece of the unborn child's body to cut or rip the piece from the body.

This horror is known in the medical world as a "D&E" abortion -- "dilation and extraction". Such cold clinical terms are used to avoid acknowledging the reality of what is done to a living human being.

It should go without saying that any body of law that fails to protect human beings from this form of cruel torture -- a practice once universally condemned as a crime against humanity when it was done in the death camps -- is uncivilized and unworthy of respect or obedience. Sadly, in the Culture of Death that has perverted and desecrated America and our constitutional law, such a barbaric practice is not only legally protected but is held up as one of the highest values in our law. That a prestigious court would grant legal protection to an act of human vivisection is a symptom of a profound cultural and civic sickness.

This sad conclusion is made even clearer by the other event that happened in the last few days. Our liturgical calendar sets aside the last Sunday before Advent as the Solemnity of Christ the King of the Universe. It is worth looking back to the magnificent encyclical letter,
Quas Primas, by which Pope Pius XI inaugurated this celebration.

To begin with, the Holy Father stated that "It would be a grave error...to say that Christ has no authority whatever in civil affairs, since, by virtue of the absolute empire over all creatures committed to him by the Father, all things are in his power." (17)

He then recounted some of the consequences of this failure to recognize the authority of Christ as law-giver, judge, and administrator of all societies:

... the seeds of discord sown far and wide; those bitter enmities and rivalries between nations, which still hinder so much the cause of peace; that insatiable greed which is so often hidden under a pretense of public spirit and patriotism, and gives rise to so many private quarrels; a blind and immoderate selfishness, making men seek nothing but their own comfort and advantage, and measure everything by these; no peace in the home, because men have forgotten or neglect their duty; the unity and stability of the family undermined; society in a word, shaken to its foundations and on the way to ruin. (24)

Does this sound familiar? The Holy Father was writing in 1925, in the aftermath of the devastating Great War, yet he could have been commenting on the catastrophe we see all around us today. He then went on to outline the benefits of recognizing our true King as the source of all law and authority:

When once men recognize, both in private and in public life, that Christ is King, society will at last receive the great blessings of real liberty, well-ordered discipline, peace and harmony... If princes and magistrates duly elected are filled with the persuasion that they rule, not by their own right, but by the mandate and in the place of the Divine King, they will exercise their authority piously and wisely, and they will make laws and administer them, having in view the common good and also the human dignity of their subjects. The result will be a stable peace and tranquillity, for there will be no longer any cause of discontent... Peace and harmony, too, will result; for with the spread and the universal extent of the kingdom of Christ men will become more and more conscious of the link that binds them together, and thus many conflicts will be either prevented entirely or at least their bitterness will be diminished. (19)

It's not popular to speak in these terms these days, because one is usually accused of being a theocrat or a religious fundamentalist. But it is nothing like that at all. It is a simple recognition that if our society were governed by the laws of God, then we would have true peace and justice. And no horror like a dismemberment abortion would be tolerated or even contemplated. But that is only possible if we recognize the authority of God's higher law and Jesus Christ as our true King.